08/25/08 Country of Origin Labeling

Country Of Origin Labeling. I'm Greg Martin with today's Line On Agriculture. I find myself looking at items at the grocery store to see where they came from. Mostly it's to find out if the fruit is grown in the U.S. and more specifically if it's a northwest product. Beginning September 30, Country of Origin Labeling will become effective and according to Ag Secretary Ed Schafer, USDA is planning to conduct education and outreach programs to help make the shift. SCHAFER: You know we're not day one going to start pounding on people and running fines and writing warrants and citations. The issue is to work with the industry to understand that there's a process that's going to go through. We're going to have to get up to speed and so we're looking at a 6-month transition period before it comes it. I think that's a real important piece of the element. There have been some elements of implementation that Schafer says they have been working on. SCHAFER: The other way that we've tried to work with the industry to lessen the impact is we just issued the regulations and you'll note in the regulations that there was a strong effort to understand kind of the logistics problems of labeling and how many words you can put on a one pound package of beef, you know those kinds of things. And also to recognize the blending of beef because many producers use several different countries of origin for beef blends. It has been a long time coming and many people have been frustrated by the time lag. Schafer says he hopes that now the guidelines have been laid out that the transition will go smoothly. SCHAFER: It has been up and down, it has been put on hold by Congress, it's been in and out and I think it's clear now that we are going to have this program and it's an important one. We've just now issued the regulations so people will get a chance to see how we are going to implement the law, how we are going to regulate the industry and oversee the labeling of these products. This week now people will start to say this is how it will affect me, this is how it's going to work and as I mentioned our regulations are pretty balanced and we should be moving through a program that's going to be pretty acceptable over all. The rule covers muscle cuts and ground beef (including veal), lamb, chicken, goat, and pork; perishable agricultural commodities (fresh and frozen fruits and vegetables); macadamia nuts; pecans; ginseng; and peanuts. USDA implemented the COOL program for fish and shellfish covered commodities in October 2004. Food service establishments, such as restaurants, lunchrooms, cafeterias, food stands, bars, lounges, and similar enterprises are exempt from the mandatory country of origin labeling requirements. For more information go to fsis.gov. That's today's Line On Agriculture. I'm Greg Martin on the Northwest Ag Information Network.